10 Signs of a Broken Process

Take a look around. Broken processes are everywhere. They are inefficient and ineffective at accomplishing their end goal. This results in poor business results and poor profitability. Who wants that?? I bet not a single one of you reading this wants that.

In this blog post, I'm going to share with you 10 signs of a broken process. Use this as a checklist to train your eyes to identify waste in your business. Once you identify the waste, take actions to remove it permanently. Make this a habit. Free up your time to spend on creating increasing value for your business, not on firefighting chaotic work processes.

10 Signs of a Broken Process:

1. Rework

A broken process will result in rework throughout steps- spending time fixing, modifying, or relocating work that was already completed.

2. Waiting

A broken process will involve waiting- time spent in hold waiting on a necessary input that's not ready, or waiting on the next step to begin.

3. Frequent upsets

A broken process will have frequent upsets that leave staff scrambling and firefighting for large portions of their day.

4. Misused resources

A broken process will have resources that are sub-optimally placed. Personnel who have high capacity will be spending their time dealing with the frequent upsets mentioned in #3. Tools and equipment will not be used to the full capacity.

5. Chaos

A broken process will result in chaotic activities, with unexpected and unintended consequences happening often.

6. Stress

Staff involved in broken processes will feel stressed due to the chaos affecting their productivity and the underutilization of their talent.

7. Excess

A broken process will result in excess waste. Too much, too complicated, too often.

8. Target misses

A broken process will struggle to meet business targets, most importantly profitability.

9. No standardization

A broken process will have no work standardization. Each employee will accomplish tasks differently, resulting in unclear deliverables and unclear optimum standards.

10. Easy to make errors

In a broken process, there will be a lack of process checks to ensure quality and prevent errors. The errors in the process will likely not be due to employee ability, but rather the inherent nature of the process.

© 2017 by The Process Maven